All Copley members and potential members are welcome to the Copley Community Orchard Annual General Meeting @ Cedar Cottage

Saturday, March 7th between 3—5:30pm

Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, 4065 Victoria Drive

Our 130 trees and berry bushes at Copley are putting on good growth and getting ready to bear fruit. At this springtime annual meeting we’ll look back at where we’ve come from, and forward to the busy season ahead.We are looking forward to seeing you!

If you take a walk through Copley Community Orchard (located on a sloping field just west of Nanaimo Skytrain station) you’ll see six new wooden benches like the one pictured here.

The comfortable benches all have beautiful views of the orchard and the surrounding landscape, and they’re already being used regularly by neighbours and people passing through. An energetic team of young people from Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House (http://www.cedarcottage.org/ ) played a big role in creating these benches. They presented themselves one Saturday morning last summer and offered to help out at our work party. Not only did they water thirsty trees and weed blueberry beds, they also assembled and installed all six of our new benches!

It was hard work in the hot sun, loading and hauling one metric tonne of chipped rock for the foundations of the benches, as well as using power tools to construct the benches from pieces that had been cut in advance.

Amy Wong, Michael Wong, Justin Li, David Liang, Jasper Deng, David Cao and Shawn Thai stuck to their tasks with good humour and patience. By the time we broke for lunch, the benches were ready to use.

Working up an appetite!

After the project was done, the kids confessed they were surprised by the task they were assigned, but that they did not mind it. Recently the kids said they have come back to the Orchard to sit on the benches and to show them off to their friends. They called the bench-building “an amazing experience” and offered to help out if we want to build a garden shed.

They also suggested they might help us build some traps to keep pests away from the plants – and maybe some fences!

Wayne Fung offered up his backyard woodworking shop to help build the prototype bench and then he and George Spiegelman cut out and sanded the pieces ready to assemble. Rick Jang was on hand to guide and support the young volunteers on the day of the construction. What a great team!

Happy almost spring! We have some important dates coming up at Copley
Community Orchard to share with you.

Saturday February 21st, 1:00 pm – We will be meeting at the Orchard to
prune the apple trees. If you are interested in learning by watching and
doing, you are welcome to join in.

Friday February 27th, 1:00pm – We will be meeting at the Orchard to prune
the heritage trees. If you are interested in learning by watching and
doing, you are welcome to join in.

Sunday, March 1, 1:00pm – We will be meeting at the Orchard to apply a
dormant spray to the trees. This will be weather dependent as the spray
cannot be applied if it is raining. If you are interested in learning by
watching and doing, you are welcome to join in.

Saturday, March 7, 3:00pm to 5:30pm – This will be our Annual General
Meeting (AGM). All members and interested members of the community are
invited to attend. Our 200 trees and berry bushes at Copley are putting
on good growth and getting ready to bear fruit. At this springtime annual
meeting, we will look back at where we’ve come — and forward to the
season ahead.

We hope you’ll come to the 3rd Annual Harvest Party! Last year’s was a lot of fun and was a great way to celebrate each other, delicious local food, and all the work we put in at the Orchard. We’ve had a successful year, let’s celebrate again!

There will be live music, family fun, fresh apple cider and good company and cheer! It will be a potluck again, so bring your delicious fall fare.

Also…Enter a pie in the pie-baking contest! Just bring your pie and see if it is voted the favorite.

When: Sunday, October 26

Where: Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive, Lakewood Rm

Time: Doors at 5:30, Dinner at 6 (we’ll party until about 8!)

What to Bring:

Your potluck item!

Your plate, utensils & mug (Tea will be provided.)

Your pie to show off your pie-making skills

We are also looking for donations of gifts for door prizes, raffle, etc. Please let us know in advance via email if you are able to contribute something.

RSVPs required please! Let us know if you’re coming, and how many adults/children will be there. If you’re able to come at 5 PM to help set up, please let us know this too. RSVP to membership@copleycommunityorchard.com

It is time for our next work party at the fantastic Copley Community Orchard on SUNDAY, AUGUST 10. Please mark your calendars! The fruit trees are coming along great, but the site needs lots of helping hands this time of year.

Work Party

Date: Sunday August 10, 2014

Time: 10am – 2pm

Potluck @ 1 PM

We will be learning how to build beautiful benches for gardens!

We will be:

building and installing benches

using comfrey for mulch

removing blighted pear trees

removing knot weed

adding wood chips to the blueberries

renewing the raspberry beds

weeding

tidying the site

Don’t forget:

dress for the weather

water bottle

potluck item (please label with ingredients so we can respect the needs of those with food concerns)

We hope to see you this coming Saturday May 3rd at Copley Community Orchard! With spring here we will be learning about Integrated Pest Management (IMP) and lawn mower maintenance. We will be planting apple trees as well.

Work Party

Date: Saturday May 3, 2014

Time: 10am – 2pm

Potluck @ 1 PM

Tasks for the work party:

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – we will be inspecting the trees for aphids, leaf rollers and other pests.
Applying fertilizer
Lawn mower maintenance
Grass cutting
Weeding
Removing sod around blueberries, and replacing with wood chips
General clean up around the orchard
Planting apple trees

Don’t forget:

dress for the weather

water bottle

potluck item (please label with ingredients so we can respect the needs of those with food concerns)

We hope to see you this coming Sunday, April 6th at Copley Community Orchard! We look forward to welcoming back last year’s members and giving tours to this year’s new members. It will be a busy day with lots to get done!

Work Party

Date: Sunday, April 6, 2014

Time: 10am – 2pm

Potluck @ 1 PM

Tasks for the work party:

apply fertilizer

tend to strawberries

general clean/tidy up

remove small apple trees previously decided to be removed (North side of North path)

investigate raspberry support structure needs

plant pollinator/beneficial mix in dry stream bed

weeding

We will also be talking about spring pest management and fruit tree life cycles.

Don’t forget:

dress for the weather

water bottle

potluck item (please label with ingredients so we can respect the needs of those with food concerns)

plate and cutlery

Donation Requests:

work gloves

hand tools for weeding

We look forward to seeing everyone for season three at Copley Community Orchard!

Come join us for the third season at Copley Community Orchard! Everyone is welcome. No experience is necessary!

Copley Community Orchard is an urban orchard located in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a place to celebrate the benefits of growing fruit trees, berry bushes and other perennial plants, educating people on their cultivation, and creating a beautiful and productive space accessible to all.

We hope to see you this coming Sunday, October 6th at the Orchard! We’re also starting to plan what’s going to go along the dry stream bed. If you’re interested, see below for how to get involved!

Date: Sunday, October 6, 2013

Time: 10am – 2pm

Potluck @ 1 PM

During this work party, we will be:

sifting woodchips and mulch tree wells

weeding

picking apples

removing Japanese knot weed

mowing

dividing perennials

tidying shed

cutting down asparagus

working on the dry stream bed

Don’t forget:.

-dress for the weather

-water bottle

-potluck item (please label with ingredients so we can respect the needs of those with food concerns)

-plate and cutlery

Donation Requests:

We’re looking for these items:

work gloves

hand tools for weeding

fruit picker

Dry Stream Bed Planting Choices – Do you want to be involved?

The dry stream bed next to the shed needs plants! Do you want to be involved in coming up with a theme and choosing plants for this area? No experience needed as there are folks with lots of experience to help! Please contact information@copleycommunityorchard.com

Hold the Date: October 19

We’re planning to celebrate all the work we’ve done this season on October 19 in the late afternoon. Hold the date and more details to come soon!

We hope to see you this coming Saturday, September 7th at Copley Community Orchard! It will be a busy day with lots to get done! If you can, please bring cardboard and Rubbermaid-type containers to donate. There will be a herb walk to share uses of “weeds” that are growing on site, and some of the history of the creek that used to run through the Orchard will be shared.

Work Party

Date: Saturday, September 7

Time: 10am – 2pm

Potluck @ 1 PM

The following things need work:

-Staking new trees on South pathway

-Thinning and transplanting strawberries

-Attending to raspberries

-Picking up dropped apples, Harvesting apples

-Continue moving compost to dry stream bed

-Remarking/ numbering trees

-Tidying shed

-Tool inventory/ relabeling tools

-Watering, Mowing, Weeding tree wells

-Continue berry patch sod removal

What to Bring:

-Cardboard for mulching around the dry stream bed

-Do you have Rubbermaid-type bins that you’d be willing to part with and donate to the Orchard? We need them for organizing in the shed.

Hold the date for the final work party:

Sunday, October 6th

And keep an eye on your inbox for the date for the next Orchard Meeting and the 2nd Annual Harvest Party!

We hope to see you on Sunday, August 11th at Copley Community Orchard! We will be offering a number of training sessions to learn about proper techniques of watering plants, integrated pest management, transplanting strawberries and taking care of asparagus beds.

Hope to see you on Sunday, June 2nd at Copley Community Orchard! We will be offering a number of training sessions to learn about fertilizing, fruit thinning, and integrated pest management. Please come right at 10, as we will be starting off the day with this educational component and then getting to work!

10 AM:

Anthony McCullough will be talking about Fertilizing.

Hartley Rosen and Daniel Romaine will be sharing knowledge about Fruit Thinning.

Hartley and Daniel will be showing us how to identify and remove Aphids and Leaf Rollers, from an Integrated Pest Management perspective.

12 PM:

Alice Macpherson will give a workshop on maximizing food production in a small space.

If you are interested in learning about air layering, an Asian Apple Pear tree will be layered on Sunday April 28, 2013. A couple of branches will be layered every hour on the hour, starting at 10am to 4pm.

This is NOT at Copley Community Orchard. The address is 4211 Dundas street, Burnaby.

Air layering is a procedure where one chooses and skives 3/4 of an inch of bark from the lower part of a branch. Rooting compound is applied to the open area and then covered with moist sphagnum moss, plastic and foil. Over a period of months the wound should send roots looking for moisture, resulting in a root ball in the fall. The branch is cut from the mother tree and planted in the ground.

This photo shows air layering on Asian pear tree. The procedure can produce a rooted sapling in six months about 30% of the time.

There will be fun activities for all ages, food, prizes, a perennial plant sale, workshops and more.

Start your neighbourhood garden tour at any of the three sites and pick up a beautiful map that you can colour in and drop off at your final stop to be entered into a draw to WIN some great prizes (blueberry bushes, strawberry plants and more!)

**Please note each garden will be open for the fair over a different time period**

Come on out and join your neighbourhood in celebrating the fall harvest and bring home some fresh (non-alcoholic) apple cider.

Meet area farmers, enjoy harvest themed activities and learn first hand how to press apples into a sweet cider that can be boiled, bottled and enjoyed year-round. Local apples will be provided from Copley Community Orchard.

The EYA is ready to plant some more fruit trees and we would love your help! All this year we have been working with the community on the Copley Community Orchard project. We have one final step before we take a break for the winter, and that is to plant a whole bunch of dwarf fruit trees.

Come join us at the orchard (location map) this Saturday, October 27th – drop in anytime between 10am and 4pm. Be prepared for the rain and wear appropriate footwear for muddy conditions (waterproof boots are best!). We have some gloves available, but if you are able to bring your own that will be helpful. If you have any questions or want more information, send me an email at jodipeters@eya.ca. Also you can find more information at the EYA’s Copley webpage.

Fellow member, Organic Master Gardener and professional landscaper Anthony McCullough will now be giving a workshop at 11 AM on Over-Wintering at Copley Community Orchard. Please bring your many winter gardening questions!

The work party will go on, rain or shine, so please come prepared for the weather. Its looking like its going to be raining! Hot water and some herbal tea bags will be provided, please bring a mug and your favourite tea to keep warm!

It’s coming up to that time where mother nature puts the perennials into hibernation mode, though its hard to believe with the wonderful weather we have been having. There is one more work party for the season, to prepare before winter takes care of the orchard for us.

October 14, 2012 / 10am-4pm

Site Management has put together a list of tasks to be completed:

- Watering the whole site (if necessary)

- Remove turned over sod, and widen tree circles

- Weeding and mulching with leaves

- Removing all sod in blueberry area and covering with wood chips

- Mulching (accessible beds, asparagus, pollinator beds with leaves)

- Cutting back grass in difficult area (or “weed wacking”)

** There will also be a workshop – in the morning (about 10:15am) on Successful Sheet Mulching! Then a hands on project as we sheet mulch part of the community orchard.

**After the potluck, Jodi will give an update on the EYA Production Area – followed by various tasks for those who want to (incorporating compost, planting cover crop, etc) in the EYA Production area

Copley Community Orchard supports The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project

Volunteers harvest extra fruit from backyard fruit trees and redistribute it to community groups. In the past 12 years they have picked more than 35,000 pounds of fruit and redistributed it to community centres, neighbourhood houses, daycares and other community groups.

What is a Pick Leader?

The “Pick Leader” helps volunteers get the fruit from the tree to the charity. They arrange equipment (with MODO car co-op, your wheels or your own vehicle), and lead a safe and fun pick with volunteers. Then they deliver the fruit to the community partner.

How to become a Pick Leader.

Pick Leaders are asked to commit to 4 picks per season. After training and orientation you will receive emails from the coordinator with details about upcoming picks that are in need of a Pick Leader. Simply email back when you can lead a pick, so you can make it suit your schedule. There will be other training sessions, so you can learn the ropes, or you can tag along on a pick and receive training that way.

What: Copley Community Orchard launch / TD Green Streets funding announcement There will be a ceremonial fruit tree planting in the orchard’s “commons” area to complement the site’s existing eight, 100 year old apple trees

75 applications were submitted to the 2012 TD Green Streets Program, and this was one of 21 projects selected from across the country.

About the TD Green Streets Program: Applications to the 2012 TD Green Streets program were open to Canadian municipalities, First Nations communities, and Business Improvement Associations (BIAs) in Vancouver and Toronto. All submissions were reviewed by regional Tree Canada Advisors, Board Members, urban forest practitioners and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation (TD FEF) representatives based on innovation, community involvement and technical expertise.

Memberships are now available to those interested in joining Copley Community Orchard!

Membership in the orchard is in the form of a share. The orchard will be cultivated collectively for the first two years. This means that there will be no individual plots, but rather the members will collectively manage and maintain the orchard along with the Environmental Youth Alliance.

Members will also collectively share the harvest. The EYA will be providing skill-building workshops for the membership on various topics such as pruning, grafting, soil building and canning.

We encourage each individual who would like to participate in educational workshops and receive some of the harvest to buy a membership share. As well, share holders commit to attend work parties (no more than 1x per month), and will receive invitations to orchard events such as harvest celebrations.

If you would like to become a member of the Copley Community Orchard please CLICK HERE to follow the link to our online form. (Note: no payment is required at this time).

There is also the opportunity to become involved in guiding the orchard’s development through participation in planning and design committees. If this interests you, please contact Jodi Peters at jodipeters@eya.ca.

(Note: If you would like a copy of the form to print, fill out and mail in, please contact Jodi Peters – 604-689-4446)

Please have your membership application submitted online or mailed to the EYA office by Monday, March 26th.

We will be notifying all membership applicants of the first work party date, where you can bring payment for your member share(s) and officially become a member of the Copley Community Orchard. This date will likely be mid April, but the specific date and time have yet to be determined.

Thanks again for your interest – we look forward to growing this amazing project with you!

We are very pleased to present the final conceptual plans as created by Community Studios. Community Studios is “dedicated to supporting and initiating grassroots projects that restore, revive and rejuvenate our neighbourhoods.”

On March 1, we had an open house at Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House with over 50 people attending. It was a great opportunity to bring people together to share our vision and to hear comments and questions from community members. We collected email addresses from anyone who wants to be involved.